Help:IPA/English
Throughout Wikipedia, the pronunciation of words is indicated by means of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The following tables list the IPA symbols used for English words and pronunciations. Please note that several of these symbols are used in ways that are specific to Wikipedia and differ from those used by dictionaries. If the IPA symbols are not displayed properly by your browser. If you are adding a pronunciation using this key, such pronunciations should generally be formatted using the template . The template provides tooltips for each symbol in the pronunciation. See the template page for instructions. Key If the words given as examples for two different symbols sound the same to you (for example, if you pronounce cot and caught the same, or do and dew, or marry and merry), you can pronounce those symbols the same in explanations of all words. The footnotes explain some of these mergers. If there is an IPA symbol you are looking for that you do not see here, see , which is a more complete list. For a table listing all spellings of the sounds on this page. For help converting spelling to pronunciation. | style="vertical-align: top" | |} Notes * The length mark is sometimes omitted in IPA transcriptions of English, in which vowel length is more variable than in e.g. German (see clipping for more information). In this system, it is retained so that the way we transcribe vowels such as matches the way they are transcribed in British dictionaries and because the free vowels are more distinct from when they are written with the length mark. Retaining it also allows to use the non-phonemic symbols }} and }}, which represent phonemic neutralization between the unstressed long and and the unstressed short and . * The IPA stress mark ( ) comes before the syllable that has the stress, in contrast to stress marking in pronunciation keys of some dictionaries published in the United States. * Words in are the standard lexical sets. Words in the lexical sets and may be given two transcriptions, the former either with or , the latter with or . Dialect variation Therefore, not all of the distinctions shown here are relevant to a particular dialect: * Many speakers of American and Canadian English pronounce cot and caught the same. You may simply ignore the difference between the symbols and , just as you ignore the distinction between the written vowels o'' and ''au when pronouncing them. * Some speakers from Northern England do not distinguish the vowel of square and nurse . If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols and . * In New Zealand English, the vowels of kit and foc'u's'' have the same schwa-like quality. If you are from New Zealand, ignore the difference between the symbols and . * In contemporary New Zealand English and some other dialects, the vowels of ''near and square are not distinguished. If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols and . * In Scottish English and Ulster English, the vowels of foot and goose are not distinguished. If you speak either of those dialects, ignore the difference between the symbols and . * In Northern England English, the vowels of foot and strut are not distinguished. If you are from Northern England, ignore the difference between the symbols and . * In Welsh English and some other dialects, the vowels of u'''northodoxy and ''a'n orthodoxy are not distinguished. If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols and . * Depending on the dialect, vowels can be subject to various mergers before , so that e.g. fill and feel or pull and pool may not be distinguished. See English-language vowel changes before historic /l/ for more information. * In many dialects, occurs only before a vowel; if you speak such a dialect, simply ignore in the pronunciation guides where you would not pronounce it, as in cart . * In other dialects, ('y'es) cannot occur after , etc., within the same syllable; if you speak such a dialect, then ignore the in transcriptions such as new . For example, New York is transcribed . For most people from England and for some New Yorkers, the in is not pronounced; for most people from the United States, including some New Yorkers, the in is not pronounced and may be ignored. On the other hand, there are some distinctions which you might make but which this key does not encode, as they are seldom reflected in the dictionaries used as sources for Wikipedia articles: * The vowels of kit and bit, distinguished in South Africa. Both of them are transcribed as in stressed syllables and as or in unstressed syllables. * The difference between the vowels of fir, fur and fern, maintained in some Scottish and Irish English but lost elsewhere. All of them are transcribed as . * The vowels of north and force, distinguished in Scottish English, Irish English and by a minority of American speakers. Both of them are transcribed as . * The vowels of pause and paws, distinguished in Cockney and by some Estuary English speakers. Both of them are transcribed as or , depending on the word. * The vowels of bad and lad, distinguished in many parts of Australia. Both of them are transcribed as . * The vowels of manning and Manning, distinguished in some parts of the United States. Both of them are transcribed as . * The difference between the vowels of pain and pane found in some English, Welsh, and Newfoundland dialects. Both of them are transcribed as . * The difference between the vowels of holy and wholly found in Cockney and many Estuary English speakers. Both of them are transcribed as . * The vowels of spider and spied her, distinguished in many parts of Scotland. Both of them are transcribed as . * The vowels of rider and writer, distinguished in many parts of Canada and some parts of the United States. Both of them are transcribed as . * The vowels of powder and pouter distinguished in many parts of Canada and some parts of the United States. Both of them are transcribed as . Other words may have different vowels depending on the speaker. The pronunciation of the vowel in most dialects of Scotland, Northern Ireland, northern England and Wales has always been closer to . BBC English has moved away from the traditional near-open front realization towards almost fully open front realization , and both the Oxford English Dictionary and the 2014 edition of Gimson's Pronunciation of English transcribe the vowel in lad, bad, cat, trap with . For more extensive information on dialect variations, you may wish to see the IPA chart for English dialects. Note that place names are not generally exempted from being transcribed in this abstracted system, so rules such as the above must be applied in order to recover the local pronunciation. Examples include place names in much of England ending ‑ford, which although locally pronounced are transcribed . This is best practice for editors. However, readers should be aware that not all editors may have followed this consistently, so for example if is encountered for such a place name, it should not be interpreted as a claim that the would be absent even in a rhotic dialect. Other transcriptions If you feel it is necessary to add a pronunciation respelling using another convention, then please use the conventions of . * To compare the following IPA symbols with non-IPA American dictionary conventions that may be more familiar, see Pronunciation respelling for English, which lists the pronunciation guides of fourteen English dictionaries published in the United States. * To compare the following IPA symbols with other IPA conventions that may be more familiar, which lists the conventions of eight English dictionaries published in Britain, Australia, and the United States. Notes External links * Getting JAWS 6.1 to recognize "exotic" Unicode symbols—For help on getting the screen reader JAWS to read IPA symbols * A free web-based IPA pronouncer